Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity
Inspired by the international bestselling young adult / science-fiction novel Excelsior, this weekly interview show puts the spotlight on both up-and-coming and established creative talents who share their journey to success.
Episodes
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Mary Shotwell. As someone with many different stories to tell, Mary has taken advantage of the freedom that comes with working with publishers such as Roan & Weatherford. She is not tied to any one genre; she has enjoyed telling stories of small-town romance with her Waverly Lake series, her work has app...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author, editor, and podcaster Laura Buchwald. Based out of New York City, Laura started working on her first novel The Coat Check Girl back in 2009, , a journey that would take more than a decade to complete. It eventually found its home with Roan & Weatherford's Radiance imprint, and it was followed by the seq...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Deborah Oswald. As a lover of history and historical fiction, Deborah has channeled her passion into a series of books featuring three generations of women from the fictional McKenna Family, which resides in Hudson Valley, New York. They were introduced to the world in the books The Girls of Haviland and Bey...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with bestselling author Kent McInnis. After graduating from Oklahoma State University, Kent served as an Air Force instructor pilot during the Vietnam War, then went into pharmaceutical sales for Westerners International, where he would eventually become chairman. And THEN, with stories from both the Air Force and the m...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with fellow author Michael Hilton. While the two have similarities in their respective paths to the same publisher, Michael talks about his debut novel "Bobby Robot" was launched in 2020... right before COVID shut down the world. During that time, Michael focused on expanding his universe by writing Parts 2, 3, and 4 an...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with arts educator, speaker, and social dance advocate Rodney Eric Lopez. In addition to being the author of "The Generosity Solution" and the founder of the Currents RI Giving Circle, Rodney has channeled his experience - which is seen in full view in the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom - into his workshop entitled "I Don...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Betsy Randolph. After years of working in radio broadcasting, law enforcement, the US Army Reserves, the military police, and more, Betsy has taken all of her experience - as well as a rich family background and a love of research - and brought it all to Roan & Weatherford Publishing Associates. She has ...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with fellow podcaster Carolyn Kiel, host & producer of Beyond 6 Seconds. Starting in 2018, Carolyn's podcast has put the spotlight on neurodivergent people of all ages, brought awareness to various afflictions, and resulted in well-deserved awards & recognitions from organizations around the world.
Click HERE to...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Annie Atkin. With a love and passion for writing fast-paced stories focusing on women taking on the patriarchy in various eras, Annie has brought her debut novel Devil in the Daylight to bookstores through her new home, Roan & Weatherford Publishing Associates.
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with producer Joslyn Vance. As the woman behind Soul Culture Films, Joslyn has worked on various film & television projects, and she has most recently brought her expertise to the film entitled "Bedridden." Starring Earthquake, Donnell Rawlings, and more, this dark comedy is now available for rent / purchase on Appl...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with W. Michael Farmer, a multi-award-winning author of Western Historical Fiction. With his various series such as The Vanishing Trilogy, Legends of the Desert, The Life & Times of Yellow Boy, and The Apache Kid Chronicles, Michael - who is also a retired Ph.D. physicist - has poured years of research into nineteen...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, producer and host George Sirois sits down with writer Matt Witten. After poetry gave him his first creative outlet, he was encouraged in high school to write his first play. That led to several other plays, which then led to Matt making the move to writing thriller novels and spending the next twenty years writing for television shows such as Law & Order, Hou...
This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with documentary filmmaker Sara Alessandrini. She has spent several years producing her feature-length documentary - which then became a miniseries - about the fall of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, after various allegations forced his resignation and eventual decline from the political stage.
This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with visual effects producer Taylor Rockwell. A lover of the performing arts since childhood, Taylor spent years behind the scenes as a stage manager for multiple theatrical productions, and eventually took the opportunity to transition from theatre to film. Her first film was Evan Almighty, and she would go on to work on such block...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Cheryl Pena. Ever since the age of three, Cheryl has wanted to write and pursue as many different creative endeavors as possible. While others took center stage for various times, writing always stayed back, ready for its time. And now, with various novellas published followed by the first two parts of a tri...
This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Michael Wendroff, author of the critically acclaimed thriller novel "What Goes Around." This was a particularly enlightening conversation since a lot of the focus was on how Michael set himself up in New York City as soon as he arrived there for college. It's a truly inspiring story that is a true representation of the phrase "...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with children's book author Maryanne Wood. Having started her journey as an author as recently as 2025, Maryanne knew right away that it wasn't enough to bring her books to schools. She had to bring an experience with her, and that has been accomplished through the various supplemental materials on her website. The two ...
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Kyle Merrick, a well versed creative strategist who is presenting his program called "Anarchy for a Day." This program allows you to take a look at life, see what works, and give it a tweak to see what works best for you.
Find out more about Kyle's program, and schedule your free consultation by clicking HERE.
Excels...
This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with prolific author and musician Ryan McGinnis. Growing up on frequent visits to the library and feeding his mind with a steady diet of thrillers, science-fiction, and horror, Ryan's creativity flourished and manifested itself in a series of thriller short stories, musical performances, and his first sci-fi novel Terrestrial.
On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with an old friend from the days of writing together on 411Mania.com: author / critic / film analyst Bryan Kristopowitz. A member of the deep roster of prolific writers on 411Mania since 2005, Bryan immediately set himself up as a champion for the ultimate cinematic underdogs: the B-movies. Those wonderful oddities that...
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